The invention relates generally to beverage preparation devices and more particularly to a device for preparing hot beverages such as coffee which can be readily assembled and disassembled from component parts which interlock without tools.
Hot beverage brewers such as coffee brewers are well-known devices which prepare beverages for transfer into dispensers of various shapes, sizes and types. One increasingly popular type of hot beverage dispenser, known as an airpot, is usually a tall, cylindrical insulated container with a pump-type mechanism for dispensing a beverage from a spout in the top. Airpots are often filled using a commercial-grade brewer which is generally a rectangular, upright device that heats water in an internal tank and delivers it downwardly into grounds retaining basket, after which the beverage flows into the airpot positioned below the basket. One purpose of the brewer is to heat and dispense a predetermined quantity of water into the brew basket.
Brewers of lesser or greater complexity are available on the market. Some brewers are designed for interconnection with an external plumbing system to prepare and deliver hot water without the user having to fill a basin. Others, termed "pour-over" brewers, are not interconnected to plumbing and require the user to pour unheated water into a receptacle for subsequent heating. The internals of all brewers are similar, and include a water heating tank or the like and suitable controls for energizing heating coils and shutting off the coils when the correct water temperature has been attained.
While commercial-grade airpot-type beverage brewers vary in complexity, most have a generally rectangular housing which supports the internal tank and encloses the controls. Some type of internal plumbing system delivers cold water to the tank for heating and delivers hot water from the tank for beverage brewing. The various parts of the exterior housing are generally fastened and held together by screws or other threaded fasteners, or by welds or rivets.
Manufacturers of commercial-grade airpot-type beverage brewers usually bring together a number of separate component parts and subassemblies for final assembly. Internal electrical components such as control circuitry for the brewer and external switches and indicator lights arrive at a final assembly station as preassembled components. At final assembly, the various component parts of the brewer are installed in the brewer housing and the housing is assembled around the internal parts. All brewers have some internal parts which are inaccessible without some disassembly of the brewer, including various controls, wiring and plumbing devices and, in most brewers, the main water-heating tank. The assembly sequence for the brewer is usually dictated by the need to gain access to certain locations in the brewer to install otherwise inaccessible parts.
Final assembly of prior art beverage brewers of the type used to fill airpot dispensers has heretofore taken approximately one-half hour or more. In part, the relatively lengthy assembly time results from complicated interconnections between the housing and internal parts. The need to fit together various parts, attach screws or other threaded fasteners, position and interconnect electrical wires and hoses all adds to the assembly time.
Servicing an airpot-type beverage brewer almost always requires some disassembly of the brewer to access parts for replacement or repair. Prior art airpot-type brewers usually require at least as much time to disassemble into separate modular components for servicing as to assemble during manufacture, and usually more time because the service person generally must spend some time determining the proper disassembly sequence. Even the most experienced service person generally spends one-half or more of the "hands on" servicing time in disassembly and assembly of prior art brewers when a relatively inaccessible internal part must be replaced, and usually considerably more than half the time.
It would be advantageous to have a beverage brewer which can be quickly and easily assembled without tools from its main component parts, since this would save manufacturing time. It would also be advantageous to reduce substantially the time required to disassemble and reassemble a brewer during servicing. It would also be advantageous to have a beverage brewer which can be readily accessed by authorized service personnel without the use of tools, but which is not readily disassembled by others. In particular, it would be advantageous to have a brewer in which the internal parts and subassemblies of the brewer structure are interlocked and secured by means of a key lock.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved beverage brewer which has component parts that interlock without tools to facilitate assembly and disassembly.
Accordingly, a beverage brewer is provided which includes component parts that interlock without tools to facilitate assembly and disassembly. The brewer comprises a tank for holding beverage preparation fluid, and a body which includes walls for partially enclosing an interior space. Operative parts of the brewer are enclosed within the interior space. A tank support is provided within the interior space of the body for supporting the tank within the interior space. An interlock member is engageable with the tank and the tank support to lock the tank to the body of the brewer. And a removable access panel engages the body to further enclose the interior space and to prevent removal of the interlocked member when the panel is installed on the body. The panel is removable to access the interior space for disassembly of the brewer and to disengage the interlock member, thus permitting separation of the tank from the brewer body.
In its preferred form, the tank is secured to the tank support by relative rotation between the tank and a portion of the body, and the interlock means of the invention includes an outflow conduit for the tank which extends outside the tank and engages portions of the body to prevent rotation between the tank and body to secure the tank to the tank support on the body. The removable panel, when installed on the body, engages the outflow conduit to prevent removal of the outflow conduit. The outflow conduit is detachable from the tank when the panel is removed, permitting removal of the tank from the tank support means. Additional non-tool interlocking parts accessible when the removable panel is removed from the body include support legs attached to the body by means of finger-installed clips, and the power interconnections and plumbing connections of the brewer.